Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Discussion. How effective is the Russian anti-air complex of the Pantsir S1-3 and S300v4?

Above you see infographics on the Pantsir S1-3 and S300v4 anti-air gun/missile systems.

Earlier today I got into a pissing match with a reader over a story regarding Israeli F-35's already having been in combat striking a warehouse in Syria. The source of the story went on to say that the reason for the strike was to keep Hezbollah from obtaining Pantsir anti-air missile systems that he said would deny the Israeli Air Force access to Lebanon.

I took the story of Israeli F-35's being used in combat with a grain of salt. Quite honestly I rate it as propaganda for the program. What made me sit up and take notice was the claim that the Pantsir could give the terrorist a ready made anti-access aerial denial weapon.

If that system is that good then it would be a huge development for the region. We're already seeing terrorist groups challenge nation state armies on the ground, but if they could do it in the air then that would be an alarming new "thing" that could change things in the ME in the near term.

Which brings me back to this.

How effective are these systems? I want opinions. Is the Frenchie right? Could the Pantsir deny the Israeli Air Force entry into Lebanon? Could the teaming of the Pantsir and S300v4 effectively nullify US efforts (if it came to that) of destroying Iranian nuclear weapon sites?